I ran a chain saw for about 3 hours today sawing oak logs into 18 inch lengths that I call “rounds”. I am going to run it about 4 hours tomorrow, and then load the “rounds” into my trailer and take them home where I will split them into firewood with my hydraulic wood splitter that I built, then stacked in my wood shed where it will stay until chucked into our wood stove, and then it will make us toasty warm.

I shared with someone this evening that I was feeling very stiff and sore from running that chain saw today, and they commented that I was almost 70, and shouldn’t be running a chainsaw. They asked who was helping me and I answered that I was doing it by myself, and they with even a more scolding tone than before said, you shouldn’t be running that chainsaw by yourself, that is very dangerous!

I wonder who made those rules? I believe in safety, but I don’t believe in hyper safety. I believe in cautiousness, but I don’t believe in being controlled by fear. I believe in being wise, but I don’t believe in avoiding all risk. I believe that we all are getting older, but I don’t believe we have to act like it.